Will Seeks For Home Win At Maple Grove Raceway
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Aug 14, 2008
KB Racing
READING, Pa. – Hillary Will, driver of the 8,000-horsepower KB Racing, LLC Top Fuel dragster, will compete this weekend, Aug. 14-17, in the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., but she sees some similarities to what she does in her Earth-rumbling, nitro-fueled racing machine with that other big competition that is taking place on the other side of the world from the Keystone State.
Hillary was a gymnast throughout her childhood and competed as a springboard diver in college at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. She still avidly follows both of those sports in her spare time, and she is a big fan of the Summer Olympics currently underway in Beijing, China.
“Michael Phelps, who it looks like is going to win gold in every race he swims in, trains near where I live in Ann Arbor [Michigan]. I drive by where he trains almost every day,” Will, a 28-year old native of Fortuna, Calif., said. “I’ve really enjoyed watching all of the Olympic events that have taken place so far, but the swimming competitions remind me most of what we do in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. They swim in individual lanes and their races are often decided by only thousandths of a second. It’s very exciting, just like our sport.”
“The Olympics are so inspiring. I’ve wanted to be a racer for as long as I remember, but I’m sure I had some daydreams about winning an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics when I was still active in it. Every time we leave to go to a race, Tammy (Oberhofer, Kalitta Motorsports Office Manager) tells us to bring home one of those little gold men. Hopefully we can get a “Wally” (trophy) this weekend in Reading and bring home the NHRA equivalent of a gold medal.”
Will is currently in 7th place in POWERade championship points.
Beginning with the 13th event in Denver, the NHRA instituted a new racing distance for the nitro-fueled classes of Funny Car and Top Fuel dragster to 1,000 ft., as opposed to the traditional distance of 1,320 ft., or a quarter of a mile, as a temporary safety solution to help the drivers of the world’s quickest and fastest racing safely bring their cars to a stop more efficiently. The unprecedented action is in response to the tragic death of Kalitta Motorsports’ Scott Kalitta, who died in a high-speed Funny Car qualifying accident in Englishtown, N.J., June 21.
Will became the fastest woman in the history of NHRA drag racing when she posted a 334.65-mph lap down the quarter-mile race track at the first of event of the 2008 season in Pomona, Calif. She became the first driver of either gender to go over 300 mph at the new 1,000-ft. finish line in Denver with a 302.21-mph mark in qualifying.
Will is currently the only female driver competing in the Top Fuel class.
A former standout in the Top Alcohol Dragster class, Will moved up to the quickest and fastest NHRA professional class, Top Fuel, in 2006 behind the wheel of a newly formed team owned by Las Vegas businessman Ken Black and managed by Kalitta Motorsports, the multi-car team founded and owned by drag racing icon Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta. She won her first Top Fuel event trophy in Norwalk (IHRA) in her rookie season and made her first NHRA final-round appearance in Memphis later that year. She finished the season in 10th place in Top Fuel championship points in ‘06. Will picked up an emotional first NHRA national event title in Topeka, Kan., June 1, 2008.
